Philippians 2: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Paul asks the Philippians to be united and humble, putting other people's interests ahead of their own. He points them to Christ Jesus, who was in the form of God, took the form of a servant, obeyed to the point of death on a cross, and was then raised by God to the highest place and given the name above every name. Paul urges them to work out their salvation without complaining or arguing, and to shine as lights where they live. He closes with his plans to send Timothy to them and his reasons for sending Epaphroditus back after a near-fatal illness.

Claim by Claim

1. 2:1
   • If there is any encouragement in Christ.
   • If there is any comfort from love.
   • If there is any fellowship of the Spirit.
   • If there is any affection and compassion.
2. 2:2
   • Paul tells them to complete his joy.
   • They are to be of the same mind.
   • They are to have the same love.
   • They are to be joined together in soul.
   • They are to be set on the one thing.
3. 2:3
   • They are to do nothing out of selfish ambition.
   • They are to do nothing out of empty conceit.
   • In humility they are to regard one another as surpassing themselves.
4. 2:4
   • Each of them is not to look only to his own interests.
   • Each of them is also to look to the interests of others.
5. 2:5
   • They are to have among them the same mindset that was in Christ Jesus.
6. 2:6
   • Christ Jesus existed in the form of God.
   • He did not regard being equal with God as something to be seized or clung to; the wording leaves it undecided between grasping at it and holding onto it.
   • Being equal with God is spoken of in relation to him.
7. 2:7
   • He emptied himself.
   • He took the form of a slave.
   • He came to be in the likeness of men.
8. 2:8
   • He was found in appearance as a man.
   • He humbled himself.
   • He became obedient as far as death.
   • The death he was obedient to was death on a cross.
9. 2:9
   • Because of this, God exalted him to the highest place.
   • God granted him the name that is above every name.
10. 2:10
    • The purpose is that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow.
    • The knees include those of beings in heaven.
    • The knees include those of beings on earth.
    • The knees include those of beings under the earth.
11. 2:11
    • The purpose is that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
    • This confession is to the glory of God the Father.
12. 2:12
    • Paul calls them his beloved.
    • They have always obeyed.
    • Their obedience is not to be only when Paul is present.
    • Now in Paul's absence they are to obey much more.
    • They are to work out their own salvation.
    • They are to do so with fear and trembling.
13. 2:13
    • God is the one at work in them.
    • God works in them the willing.
    • God works in them the doing.
    • God does this for the sake of his good pleasure.
14. 2:14
    • They are to do all things without grumbling.
    • They are to do all things without disputing.
15. 2:15
    • The purpose is that they become blameless.
    • The purpose is that they become innocent.
    • They are to be children of God without blemish.
    • They are in the midst of a crooked and perverted generation.
    • Among that generation they shine as lights in the world.
16. 2:16
    • They hold forth the word of life.
    • This is to be a boast for Paul on the day of Christ.
    • Paul's boast is that he did not run in vain.
    • Paul's boast is that he did not labor in vain.
17. 2:17
    • Paul raises the possibility that he is being poured out as a drink offering.
    • The offering is poured out upon the sacrifice and priestly service of their faith.
    • Paul rejoices.
    • Paul rejoices together with all of them.
18. 2:18
    • In the same way they too are to rejoice.
    • They are to rejoice together with Paul.
19. 2:19
    • Paul hopes in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to them soon.
    • The purpose is that Paul may be encouraged.
    • Paul will be encouraged when he learns how they are doing.
20. 2:20
    • Paul has no one else of like soul with him.
    • Such a person would genuinely care about their affairs.
21. 2:21
    • All of them seek their own interests.
    • They do not seek the interests of Jesus Christ.
22. 2:22
    • They know Timothy's proven worth.
    • Timothy served with Paul for the gospel.
    • Timothy served with Paul as a child serves with a father.
23. 2:23
    • Paul hopes to send Timothy.
    • Paul will send him as soon as he sees how things go with himself.
24. 2:24
    • Paul is confident in the Lord.
    • Paul is confident that he himself will come soon.
25. 2:25
    • Paul considered it necessary to send Epaphroditus to them.
    • Epaphroditus is Paul's brother.
    • Epaphroditus is Paul's fellow worker.
    • Epaphroditus is Paul's fellow soldier.
    • Epaphroditus is the messenger sent by them.
    • Epaphroditus is the one who ministered to Paul's need.
26. 2:26
    • Epaphroditus was longing for them all.
    • Epaphroditus was distressed.
    • The reason was that they had heard he was sick.
27. 2:27
    • Epaphroditus was indeed sick, close to death.
    • God had mercy on him.
    • God had mercy not on him only but on Paul also.
    • The mercy was so that Paul would not have sorrow upon sorrow.
28. 2:28
    • Paul sent him with more urgency.
    • The purpose is that when they see him again they may rejoice.
    • The purpose is that Paul may be less sorrowful.
29. 2:29
    • They are to welcome him in the Lord with all joy.
    • They are to hold such men in honor.
30. 2:30
    • Because of the work of Christ he came near to death.
    • He staked his life.
    • He did this to fill up what was lacking in their service to Paul.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

2:1

"bowels and mercies": in 1611 English "bowels" named the inner organs as the seat of strong feeling, much as we say "heart." The Greek word behind it means compassion felt in the gut. Also, "fellowship of the Spirit" translates koinonia, meaning a sharing or partnership in something held in common; the Greek phrase can mean sharing in the Spirit or the sharing that the Spirit creates, and Paul does not say which.

2:3

"strife" translates eritheia, a word that originally meant working for hire and came to mean self-seeking ambition, the maneuvering of someone chasing office. "Vainglory" is empty glory, wanting to be thought well of for nothing. "Lowliness of mind" renders a Greek word that usually carried a negative sense in ordinary speech, meaning servile or beneath notice; Greek and Roman readers did not normally count it a virtue.

2:5

Verses 6 to 11 have a rhythm, a shape and a vocabulary unlike anything else in the letter, and many scholars think Paul is quoting a hymn or poem about Christ that the churches already knew, rather than composing the lines here.

2:6

"thought it not robbery to be equal with God": the Greek noun here, harpagmos, is rare and its sense is disputed. It can mean a thing snatched, a thing to be grabbed at, or a thing already held and clung to. So the line may mean that he did not try to seize an equality he lacked, or that he did not cling to an equality he already had. The rendering keeps both possibilities open, as the Greek does.

2:7

"made himself of no reputation" translates a verb meaning "emptied himself." Paul does not say what he emptied himself of. "Form of a servant": the Greek word is doulos, a slave, a person owned by someone else, not a paid employee.

2:8

Crucifixion was a Roman execution reserved for slaves, rebels and people without citizenship. It was slow, public and deliberately degrading, and Roman writers treated the word itself as unfit for polite conversation. The point of "even the death of the cross" is that this was the lowest death available.

2:9

"Wherefore" means "and so, because of that." The name above every name is Lord: in the Greek version of the Old Testament that Paul and his readers used, "Lord" was the word printed in place of God's own personal name.

2:10

"Things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth" is a standard ancient way of naming the whole of reality in three levels: the sky above, the land where people live, and the realm of the dead below. Together the three mean everyone and everything, everywhere.

2:11

"Confess" here means to declare something openly and publicly, not to admit a fault. "Lord" translates kyrios, the word Greek-speaking Jews used when reading aloud the personal name of God in their scriptures, and also the standard title given to the Roman emperor. Verses 10 and 11 closely echo Isaiah 45:23, where every knee bows and every tongue swears to the LORD.

2:12

"Work out your own salvation": both the pronoun and the verb are plural in Greek, so this is addressed to the whole congregation together, not to individuals one by one. The verb means to carry something through to completion, the way you work out a plan. "Fear and trembling" is a set phrase from the Greek Old Testament for awed seriousness before God or before someone in authority; it does not mean panic.

2:13

"Of his good pleasure" uses "pleasure" in its older English sense of will or decision, as in "the king's pleasure." The Greek noun means a settled good purpose, what someone has chosen and is glad to do.

2:14

The King James word "murmurings" means grumbling quietly under your breath. "Disputings" means arguing.

2:15

"Harmless" in 1611 meant unmixed or pure, like metal with nothing alloyed into it, rather than merely inoffensive. "Without rebuke" means with nothing anyone can charge against them. "A crooked and perverse nation" quotes Deuteronomy 32:5, where Moses describes Israel in the wilderness; the word translated "nation" means a generation, the people of one age, not a country.

2:16

"Run in vain, neither laboured in vain" borrows the language of athletics: the foot race and the punishing training that went with it. "The day of Christ" adapts the prophets' phrase "the day of the LORD," a coming day when God settles accounts.

2:17

In both Jewish and Greek and Roman worship, a measured amount of wine was poured out over or beside a sacrifice as a drink offering. Paul pictures his own life, and possibly his execution, as that wine, and the Philippians' faith as the sacrifice it is poured over. "Service" here translates a word used for public duties performed at one's own expense and for priestly duty at the temple.

2:19

"Timotheus" is simply the full Greek form of the name Timothy.

2:20

"Naturally" in 1611 meant genuinely, out of real feeling, the way a family member cares. The modern sense of "naturally," meaning "of course," would mislead here.

2:22

"The proof of him" means his tested quality, what he showed himself to be under pressure, not evidence produced in an argument. The Greek word is used of metal that has been assayed and passed.

2:23

"Presently" in 1611 English meant at once, immediately. It did not mean "after a while," which is how a modern reader hears it.

2:25

"Your messenger" translates apostolos, one who is sent: Epaphroditus was the delegate the Philippian church sent to Paul with their gift, and Paul is now sending him home. "Wants" in 1611 means lacks or needs. The word behind "ministered" is the same public-service and temple-service word used in verse 17.

2:26

"Full of heaviness" translates a strong Greek word for anguished distress; it is the word used of Jesus in Gethsemane in Mark 14:33. It is much heavier than modern "heaviness" suggests.

2:27

There were no antibiotics and no reliable treatment for a serious infection, so an illness like this killed people routinely. News also moved at walking speed, which is why the Philippians had heard Epaphroditus was ill weeks before there was any way for them to learn he had survived.

2:28

"The more carefully" in 1611 meant with greater eagerness and concern. It did not mean more cautiously.

2:29

"Hold such in reputation" means treat people like him as valuable and honor them publicly. "Reputation" here is the standing you give someone, not the talk that goes around about them.

2:30

"Not regarding his life" translates a verb taken from gambling: to stake something, to throw it down as a wager. "Your lack of service" points to what the Philippians could not do in person, since they were far from Paul's imprisonment; Epaphroditus delivered on their behalf what they could not bring themselves.